When Katie woke up after a few hours hazily, she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand to realize she had fallen asleep in Lord Alexander’s room. She had fallen unconscious after the Lord had began sucking out her blood.
The time when his fangs pricked had pricked her skin had hurt in the beginning. She touched the skin, tracing her fingers to feel the skin smooth but the pain visible when she put pressure on her fingers.
It was an intimate moment when he had done it, holding her in his arms close to him as he sucked blood from her neck.
She could still feel the urgency of his hands on her body, fervent and needy.
Looking down, she found the front of her dress torn open. Few buttons were missing and one was hanging loosely with the thread.
Lord Alexander wasn’t in the bed nor in the room. Seeing the curtains fly due to the open doors of the patio, Katie scrambled down the bed. Letting her feet walk towards the open doors to see Lord Alexander sitting there lazily with a cigar in his hand, his legs stretched out with his back against the lounge chair. She caught sight of him bringing the cigar to his lips, taking a deep puff from it before blowing out the smoke in the midnight air.
She was never fond of cigar and smokes. Though the smoke didn’t affect the vampires that didn’t mean it didn’t damage a humans health. She disliked the smell and it made her frown when she caught sight of someone with the cigar.
But it was different when Lord Alexander picked the cigar between his slender fingers. Even the misty smoke that left his lips looked alluring.
She walked to where he was, making his gaze shift from the forest ahead of him to her.
“With the amount of blood I took, I doubted you would wake up before dawn,” he asked her while exhausting the burning bud in his hand on a ash tray, “How do you feel?”
Taking her hand, he guided her to sit across his lap, “A little light headed,” she answered feeling his hand interlace with her finger playfully.
When he pulled and skimmed the tips of her fingers, he saw her lips open slightly and her breathing quicken. With experience the Lord knew how exactly to get a woman aroused. The fingers when caressed right could provide the same sensation as when kissed on the lips.
“You need rest. Let’s get you back in bed,” Katie shook her head quickly at his words. Seeing this he tilted his head in question, “What’s the matter?”
“Its…it’s lonely.”
“Lonely?”
“Going to bed,” she answered and added, “I mean it’s your bed. I should go sleep in mine,” she looked at their interlaced fingers, realizing how small her hand was compared to his.
Feeling him tug her hand she looked up to see him give her a tender smile and she felt her heart skip a beat.
“My precious girl,” he whispered pulling her closer and leaning forward as their nose touched each other. When she closed her eyes she heard him speak, “What would I do without you,” savoring the closeness they shared in the blissful, quiet night Katie let a contented sigh.
“If it is company in bed, you just need to ask,” he said, his voice carrying humor with a devious smile, “But I guess you aren’t sleepy now,” he said touching her neck to see the two red dots on her skin.
“You don’t sleep much,” said Katie looking him in the eye, “Is that a vampire trait?” she asked him curious.
“Hmm, I don’t…I suppose it’s a habit that has stuck for a few years now. There’s no time, day and no night when you are living as a nightly creature. Everything is same and mundane.”
“Really? I thought it was interesting,” she said furrowing her brows.
“How so?” he indulged her with the question.
“Vampires live longer than the humans, giving them the advantage of time. There are so many things that can be done, you get to see new life arrive…” she trailed realizing she was stepping into something she had been avoiding at the back of her mind.
But Lord Alexander continued, “And I see death. What is time when it is not being utilized. When you live only to see people’s lives slip by until yours is gone too,” he said nonchalantly picking up the hand Katie had placed on her lap, running his thumb over wrist.
What he said was true. It was a drawback being a vampire, to see the humans you were attached to pass through life while you lived. A humans life was fragile while the vampires lived longer and aged slower. It was almost as if the nightly creatures were immortal, especially the pure blooded vampires.
Half-blooded vampires, were the ones that were turned by other vampires. The longevity of the half-blood vampires depended on who had turned them. Death was inevitable to both the humans and vampires.
She was a human, Katie thought to herself. Lowering her eyes down at her lap her mind drifted to all the possibilities she had previously thought about, including things her cousin had pointed out to her.
She was a human, a life that was frail in this world. Even if both of them did get together, there were too many liabilities. The man next to her was a Lord, a Lord of an entire empire. Bonding with each other would mean life and death at the same time.
“I should have gone out for a walk,” she heard him murmur when he brought her wrist over his lips.
Seeing the way he was controlling his breathing and his jaw clenched, Katie felt he was in pain. She wanted to offer him her blood if it would reduce his discomfort. Even the grip on her hand had tightened but with seconds it loosened.
“Have you heard the story of the hen who laid golden eggs?” he asked her.
“I have.”
It was an old story, a story which was often narrated to young children.
“Could you recount it for me? In your own words of course, anything you are comfortable with,” nodding her head Katie began.
“Once there was a couple who owned a farm at the far end of the south empire. They had no children of their own but they had many chickens and hens, geese and cows. Among them was a hen who laid a golden egg every day before sunrise. One day the couple got greedy and killed the hen,” she said closing the story short.
Wondering if that was the story he had asked her to recount, she asked him, “Is that the story you were asking?”
“That’s the one. Its been a while since I last felt someone’s blood to be so self satisfying. To drink until the very last drop,” he said with a sigh.
She didn’t know how to react to him relating her to the hen.
Looking at her, Alexander chuckled, “Don’t worry I won’t kill you. I am not dull-witted like the couple. I will keep you safe,” he said.
Times like these Katie found Lord Alexander to be really dangerous. Like she was treading on a thin ice.
As the night air blew, she shivered, goosebumps forming on her skin. Lord Alexander took her back into the room, closing the patio doors to block the cold wind from entering the room.
Leading her to the bath, Lord Alexander turned the faucet, letting hot water fill the large bath. Was the Lord planning to take a bath now? At this odd hour? But then she remembered his words. Time didn’t matter in the world he lived in.
Wanting to give him privacy, Katie turned around but to hear Alexander speak to her.
“Where are you going?” his beautiful haunting eyes captured hers, “We are taking a bath together,” were his words as his feet padded across the floor to where she was.
“I think I am fine,” she said nervously taking a step back and before she could escape his hand reached for hers.
“Of course, you will be fine,” he murmured, his fingers already working on her buttons to unbutton it, “I need you,” and that was all that was needed to coax her to get into the bath with him.
She now sat in the middle of the bath that contained warm water, her back facing him while little steam went up in the air around her. He had seen her body but they had never bathed together. It was embarrassing for her and her shoulder were tense with her eyes as wide as an owl, looking at the steam.
Lord Alexander’s bathing room was magnificent, with the candles glowing from every side and corner of the room to give a golden glow to the entire space. The level of the water didn’t reach until her neck but reached just above her waist to cover her from the eyes of the lord of Valeria. When Lord Alexander was getting rid of his clothes she had parted her hairs on either side of her shoulder to cover her bosom right before getting in the bath.
“What are you doing standing so far away?” she heard Lord Alexander chuckle right behind her. Feeling his hands on both her shoulders, she felt blood rush above her head, “Relax, darling. I wouldn’t want you fainting in the bath. Deep breath,” he whispered beside her ear.
“You ask for the impossible, milord,” she muttered under her breath which he heard anyways and it made him laugh.
“I didn’t know breathing was such a difficult task,” he said it with lilt, “Let me breath some life into you then,” turning her around his hands traveled down from her shoulders to the side of her arms before resting them on her waist.